Press Release

States May Turn to Tax Increases to Fund Health Care Exchanges

States May Turn to Tax Increases to Fund Health Care ExchangesWashington Has Spent $5 Billion So Far

(Washington, D.C.) - In November of this year, enrollment is scheduled to begin under the second year of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. More than a dozen states - which are currently operating their own Obamacare exchanges - face a loss of federal funding to operate and manage those exchanges, and will be forced to find ways to finance them. Colorado has already announced tax increases to fund operations of its state exchange, as has the District of Columbia. Minnesota, Connecticut, and Idaho have also imposed taxes on insurance policyholders to finance the exchanges - taxes that will be passed along to policyholders in the form of higher insurance costs.

U.S. taxpayers have already paid nearly $5 billion merely to launch state-based exchanges. It is possible that total will increase, as some supporters of Obamacare push for more federal money to be made available to states.

Daniel Garza, Executive Director of The LIBRE Initiative, released the following statement:

"As long as the president fails to address the serious problems with his new health care law, the costs that it imposes on consumers and taxpayers will continue to mount. U.S. taxpayers have already coughed up $5 billion of their hard-earned money just to launch these deeply-flawed state systems - some of which have already failed. Now the federal website is being completely redesigned, several states have abandoned their sites, and others have no sustainable plans to keep theirs going. In light of the growing cost of this initiative, it's a disservice to the taxpayers to go forward without seriously debating reform."